Monday, February 21, 2005
Psalm 51:9-10 A heart pure create in me Jehovah, And an established spirit restore in my mind Do not throw me from before Your face, And Your Holy Spirit do not take from me.
CREATE IN ME
These verses are often sung in our Sunday worship services following the sermon. They are a prayer that the Word which we have heard would take root in our hearts and there grow. Through the Word our gracious Lord creates pure hearts in us. Pure because we have been convinced of our sins and repented of them; pure because the Lord has reminded us yet again of that forgiveness which is ours in Jesus. We ask the Lord to create in us pure hearts not only for that hour of worship, but that He would establish that heart during the week. Establish me in Your Word and in my mind that when temptations come again we do not fall prey to the snares of the devil.
"Do not throw me from before Your face." Here we are asking of our Lord that He would abide with us day by day. For myself, I often think of this as asking that the Lord would not cast me away from His presence. I do not want Him to quit giving me the gifts of His Word, of His daily blessings, of His mercy and forgiveness. His gifts I need every minute of every day.
Tied to this is the Holy Spirit. How well David new that if the Lord took the Holy Spirit from him, there would then be no hope. David had seen this in Saul, who because of unbelief, because of Saul's rejection of God, had the Holy Spirit taken from him. Without the Holy Spirit there is no faith. Without the Holy Spirit there is no cleansing, no forgiveness. For it is the Holy Spirit who creates in us faith. It is the Holy Spirit who establishes us in the Word to believe that Jesus is our Savior.
It is important that the Holy Spirit abide in us, that we do not despise the means by which God reveals to us His mercy and forgiveness. Thus we ask our God not to take from us the Holy Spirit, and with that we are asking that our Lord would allow His Word to be read and preached among us that we might abide in the presence of our God all our days. 